Slain Father Was Abusive, Son’s Lawyer Says : Crime: Prosecutors allege that Raymond Godlewski Jr. planned the execution-style shooting to collect a $280,000 inheritance.

A 25-year-old Montrose man accused of hiring a boyhood friend to kill his father was the victim of constant abuse and believed other members of his family would be hurt if he did not act to stop his father, his lawyer argued Monday.

Raymond Godlewski Jr. was in a “nearly psychotic state” when he tried to hire his friend Gene Marshall Flack, 24, to kill his father, Deputy Public Defender Kenneth P. Lezin said in San Fernando Superior Court.

Godlewski, Flack and Michael Brown, 22, are on trial for murder in connection with the shooting of Raymond Godlewski Sr., 45, who was shot on the morning of July 4, 1989, in the entryway of his Sylmar home.

Prosecutors allege that Godlewski masterminded the execution-style killing to collect a $280,000 inheritance. Investigators believe that Flack fired the single shotgun blast to the head that killed the senior Godlewski.

Godlewski and Flack face life terms in prison without the possibility of parole if they are convicted, Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman said. Brown, accused of driving the car in which Flack made his escape, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted on first-degree murder charges, Richman said.

The case will be decided by two juries--one for Flack and Brown, the other for Godlewski.

“Raymond Godlewski hired Gene Flack and Michael Brown to kill his father,” Richman said. “And they certainly did it.”

Lezin acknowledged that Godlewski wanted his father dead, but said he wanted to protect himself from the terrorism with which the elder Godlewski ruled his family. Lezin said the elder Godlewski was a violent man who frequently threatened family members.

According to Lezin, shortly before Godlewski hired Flack to kill his father, the elder Godlewski held the barrel of a gun to his son’s face and said, “I made you. I can destroy you.”

“Something inside Ray Jr. snapped,” Lezin said. “The impotent rage of a lifetime welled up inside him.”

Flack’s court-appointed attorney, Jack R. Stone, said Flack accepted Godlewski’s commission to kill his father, but never carried out the act.

“Mr. Godlewski himself is the one who killed his father,” Stone said.